Youth-initiated, shared decisions with adults is when projects or programs are initiated by youth
and decision-making is shared among youth and adults. These projects empower youth while at the
same time enabling them to access and learn from the life experience and expertise of adults.

8.	Youth-initiated, shared decisions with adults is when projects or programs are initiated by youth and decision-making is shared among youth and adults. These project empower youth while enabling them to learn from experience and the expertise of adults.
7.	Youth-initiated and directed is when young people initiate and direct a project or program Adults are involved only in a supportive role.
6.	Adult-initiated, shared decisions with youth is when projects or programs are initiated by adults but the decision-making is shared with the young people.
5.	Consulted and informed is when youth give advice on projects or programs designed and run by adults. The youth are informed about how their input will be used and the outcomes of the decisions made by adults.
4.	Assigned but informed is where youth are assigned a specific role and informed about how and why they are being involved.
3.	Tokenism is where young people appear to be given a voice, but in fact have little or no choice about what they do or how they participate.
2.	Decoration is where young people are used to help or "bolster" a cause in a relatively indirect way, although adults do not pretend that the cause is inspired by youth.
1.	Manipulation is where adults use youth to support causes and pretend that the causes are inspired by youth

Research collected by the Centre of Excellence on Youth Engagement indicates that activities and programs to engage youth can:

	make youth more aware of those in society who are disadvantaged
	help youth cope with stressful life situations
	provide youth with supportive social networks
	enhance their social skills
	increase their sense of what kind of work or occupation they might enjoy
	increase their sense of competence
	increase their self-esteem
	give them a better sense of what is right and wrong
	decrease problem behaviours
	increase their academic performance and their likelihood of going on to higher education
	enhance their life skills in areas such as public speaking
	make them feel empowered, valued and important
	help them get along better with adults
	increase their leadership abilities
	increase their sense of social responsibility
	reduce drug use, teen pregnancy and aggression

This summary and collection of resources is aimed primarily at adults working in or with schools systems who are interested in promoting youth engagement through school-based and school-linked programs, practices and policies.

There are numerous on-line sources of information and advice about youth engagement and empowerment, including:

	the Centre of Excellence on Youth Engagement (Funded by Health Canada)
	the McCreary Centre in British Columbia
	the youth resources on the Canadian Health Network
	our collection of links to resources and research (See the right hand margin of this page)
	our collection of lesson plans, student webquests on social development

This summary has been prepared with funding provided by the
Population Health Fund, Health Canada